BOPERA

From the inside, BOPERA is most of all a project which explores devising in art making. With a horse wagon as stimulus and point of departure for a transformative collective process of changing the wagon into a musical instrument, exploring the potential of the wagon as sound object and instrument from where to side by side dive into a landscape of movement, voice and listening, a journey starts, and has lasted for a while…

BOPERA is a trans-disciplinary performance, a kind of Gestamt-Kunstwerk, aiming to dialogue and arouse curiosity in an expanded group of audience of children, youth and audult to experience this journey together. In line with the term ‘opera’ meaning ‘work’ / a piece of work – the artists enters the stage as a collective, or as workers, or travellers…a listening machinery of song, dance, and performance art where the performance poses questions about different forms of living a life in our time. The wagon is set in motion, a manual, sonic machinery, a sea of voices and a visual and sensorial landscape unfolds.
We ask what it may mean to travel, live and settle in an unknown place, to be a stranger? To experience temporary connection, break-up. To flee from something is very different from being a volunteer traveler…

BOPERA was produced fall, 2017, co-produced by Bærum Kulturhus. Freelance writer and art critic Mona Gjessing wrote a review in UNIMAs publication Ånd i hanske nr. 2/2017:

‘This is outstanding music theater, dance and performance and is of the supreme kind that captivates both children and adults. When the characters eventually coordinate their movements and everyone sticks their sensory ‘tools’ towards a fictional center, -for a moment, they spin around as if they were one giant propeller. The direction is apparently loose and free, but the performance leaves no doubt about that ‘BOPERA is based on professional expertise and a strict concept.’

’The intersecting cross sequences built over elements of arabian folk music also have an enchanting effect. The adult audience is aware of special melodic pitches and patterns and use of ‘unclean’ micro pitches. All honour to the ensemble, who despite the performance of a work built around a politically relevant and extremely important theme, appears free, playful and completely present in relation to the audience.’

Performers and creators of BOPERA: Marianne Skjeldal/Karstein Solli/Beata K. Iden/Øystein Elle. Other artists: Carl Nilssen-Love/Kristjan Belgau/ Jon Halvor Bjørnseth and Thale Kvam Olsen.

BOPERA has played at

Bærum Kulturhus, Norway, September 2017 (premiere)

Dansens Hus, Oslo,Norway, May 2018

Den Fantastiske Barnekunstfestivalen, Arendal, Norway, October 2018